Happy Holidays, Daughters of Socialism

In March, I realized more clearly and deeply than ever before that it was a so-called "Women's History Month."

But a long time ago, I was very disgusted with the word "woman" and wanted to expel it. Because its main meaning is still "married woman", "wife", "daughter-in-law", although one of them has been invisible, it is too strong to be ignored. The identity of "woman" means that there is another subject in front of this woman, who is this woman married to, whose wife and whose daughter-in-law is. From the glyph, it looks too much like a woman kneeling in front of a broom. If so, what are we celebrating, the great historical contribution made by women all over the world "kneeling before the broom"?

The first I knew about this magical March was when DailyArt started to push me female artists and reminded me that March is Women's History Month, so this month they will continue to recommend some "gifted" female artists and their works. But I thought about the remaining eleven months, and there may be almost all male artists here. Isn't this move to cover up?

Earlier, festivals about women had not expanded to this extent in terms of "common sense" - to cover an entire month with the work of female artists. When we count the month of March, we only meet the "Women's Day on March 8th" symbolically, vacating this day with pretense and grandeur.

But what is the day free for? It’s not always a woman who opens her eyes in bed and starts thinking: Happy Holidays to me, I’m going to do something different today; I have to remind myself all the time that the overwhelming force in life is,” I am a woman".

Instead, her boss informed her in advance, "Women's Day is coming soon, you can come up with a holiday event plan for me as soon as possible." Imagine if every working woman encountered a similar situation, I don't know who this holiday is for. of.

There are endless beautiful designs in shopping malls, painstaking product promotions, and shopping strategies. They are all for Women's Day, for our great women, but there is nothing worse than this day.

Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, this cunning consumer society is closely surrounding every woman, and has already caught their eyes firmly on their hands. And on this day, she did everything she could, as if she was going to "devour her alive", and even tried to get all women to join in this encirclement and suppression of her.

Year after year, this is the most intuitive feeling that Women's Day gives me.

What is Women's Day? We can see how the entry explains it: "It is a festival established on March 8 every year to celebrate women's important contributions and great achievements in the fields of economy, politics and society." Nothing like this More general. And its full name is "International Working Women's Day" - the word "women" has been mentioned in the previous article, like the scene of "a woman kneeling in front of a broom" - so you have to think about it and figure it out in your heart The "labor" it said was probably originally referring to the labor of "a woman kneeling in front of a broom".

In this way, this is indeed a huge contribution made by women for hundreds of thousands of years. Because to this day, men have hardly taken up a third of this labor. (If he had a daughter, it would be reasonable to share so much, but when he grows up and becomes a woman, he will take it over from another woman and bear the burden on himself completely.) It's ridiculous and sad to have a festival to honor this effort.

It's no wonder that once these men heard about this festival, they obediently retreated to their workstations and waved their hands quickly, "It has nothing to do with me (we), you lesbians have fun!"

In short, I've had enough of this holiday. It allows every woman to fully display an unnatural smile on this day. When we see the words "Women's Day", we will feel uneasy, as if wearing such a red silk note and medal on our chest. But since no man has ever been honored in this category, it seems like a joke. If the man next to us makes a sneer at the right time, it seems that the whole world will follow with a snort and disappear.

But this is just a handful of women and the world they live in. They also lost, but gained not much, and even some shameful pride. It can be said that they have removed part of the oppression with their knowledge. But can it really be "removed"? Even if it is a fluke, it can be roughly seen that their lives are full of many subtle irregularities, and they can barely live in ambiguity, but they can't stand thinking about it.

It was March 8th of the year again. The previous case concerning Fengxian County in Xuzhou has not been really concluded. After being chained and imprisoned in a dark room for more than 20 years, he was abused and forced to give birth to eight children. woman has not been rescued. And a man in the same village in Fengxian County has admitted that he was a woman who spent 1,000 yuan to buy it, and there is no trace of it so far. We don't have time to ask, how many women are still imprisoned like this, how many invisible darkness is there.

And the more tragic case of the "iron cage girl" surfaced at this time. The woman who had been locked in the cellar for many years with only her head exposed, staring at the photographer, staring at you and me in front of the photo - although No one could have imagined what happened to her, but the bloody facts said it all. "Chain and cage, what other container?" "Chain girl, iron cage girl, who's next?" People asked, but there was no answer.

If the page was turned so easily, March 8 would be meaningless.

How can it be? We accept "International Women's Day" as easily as "World Meteorological Day". There are many similarities. For example, the 65th Oscar film selection was widely praised for its "women's theme". It is said that it can This honors women's contributions to the film industry. However, after the group of people who claimed that they insisted on "art first" finally recovered from their stupor, they turned around and raised such a hypocritical question: whether the affirmative action led to the mediocrity of art. They stopped talking, but they already had the answer in their hearts.

But the initiators of these absurd selections should not forget that the cumbersome and pitiful flower crown is not something we prayed for, and when women challenge the whole society, they do not want such a result. As women, and in a place that has been “closed for a long time,” we have almost forgotten that the original origin of the feminist movement was the efforts of American women to fight for the right to vote.

They appease women in stages, give a marginal position, as a decoration, as a facade, and take the opportunity to show their generosity, so that women can stop for a short time. But all this is just for the sake of appearances, and a dispensable position cannot win the realm of equality between men and women.

Faced with all kinds of unusual attention, some women finally came to their senses. "The fact that women's issues have been paid attention to so much shows that women are still only one of the many problems in the male society, and cannot face social problems together with men." But unfortunately, The current situation has shown that women are indeed only "one of the many problems in the male society", a scar that the society is eager to cover up, but because it does not really grow on men, it seems insignificant, and it is often just a matter of covering it up. .

Today is March 8, the most ordinary day, not even a "medal" for women. Perhaps you can think of it this way, you don't have to go that far, you don't have to wait for an honor to fall on the heads of all female compatriots because it says "woman", and you don't have to get this frivolous burden like a flower crown, just to count what we have lost. Yes, it’s time to understand where women are now and where we are in history.

I clearly remember that when the Russian-Ukrainian war came together, the news of Fengxian's "Chain Girl" quickly disappeared from people's sight like a bubble. The female netizens who went to visit her were imprisoned, and the women who were locked in cages, caves, and cellars were still there quietly, unable to make a sound.

In a very short period of time, I have seen many "beautiful" letters, and countless people of great reputation against war, some of whom wrote, "The Russians may conquer Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people have It's been shown in a few days that they won't let the Russians have her." What a familiar rapist narrative, only when all of us, who use this metaphor, who listen to it, acquiesce that women are "vulnerable" Almost everyone has this consensus and agrees with this statement. But once back to real, concrete events, people start to pull away quickly, as if "victimized women" or "women are being victimized" are just a tacitly accepted symbol that can be widely used.

Some visible wars, visible aggressions have taken place, but all the wars against women, the aggression against women, has been going on for a long, long time, and no one has noticed it, or didn't want to notice it.

If every war has an outcome, then I want women to win the war against themselves. As long as we can realize that we are being violated, and fully realize that this is a war - and will be the longest war ever.

When I wrote this title, my heart was full of anger and irony, but I still want to send Ma Yan's blessing at the end of the article on Women's Day on March 8, 2005 to you again.

On Women's Day 2022, "Daughters of Socialism...May your happiness on this day be the hope for the future of a society of both sexes."

May we be victorious in this ongoing war.